Homemade Garam Masala
adapted from Fun & Food Blog1 T. cardamom seeds (discard the green hulls, or set aside for making tea or use in an infusion)
1 2″ long cinnamon stick, coarsely broken apart
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp whole cloves
1 tsp black peppercorns
1/4 of a whole nutmeg
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp mace powder
1 piece star anise
1 bay leafHeat a frying pan over medium high heat. Add all of the spices and toast for about 2 minutes. Pour spices into a clean bowl and allow to cool for some time, at least 10-15 minutes. Grind mixture in a spice grinder (or mortar and pestle). You may need to do this in multiple batches, in which case, make sure to blend the ground spice mixture well.
Spice mixture will remain very fresh in an airtight jar for 6-8 months.
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The range of culinary emotions I’ve experienced living here in Germany for the past three months span the whole gamut: rage that I cannot find dried ancho chiles, miso, or beef other than stew meat or flank… joy that I have access to such a wide variety of sausages, charcuterie, and cuts I typically don’t see in the USA… and the sauerkraut! fresh and delicious!
Well, the other day I decided I wanted to make an Indian themed dinner out of two of my favorite cookbooks “5 Spices, 50 Dishes” by Ruta Kahate, and “Quick & Easy Indian Cooking” by Madhur Jaffrey. With ‘5 Spices, 50 Dishes’ I was well set — her recipes never call for any spices other than the 5 she outlines in the introduction (cumin, coriander, turmeric, cayenne, and mustard seeds). However, in Jaffrey’s book, I kept coming across recipes calling for garam masala. So, I wrote ‘garam masala” on my grocery list, and headed to the store.
And guess what?! Surprise, surprise…. no garam masala to be found ANYWHERE! I checked the grocery store, the specialty ‘markthalle’, the organic aka ‘bio’ market, and the international market… and found nothing…. sad, sad nothing.
So, what to do? well, I thought to myself, I’ve made tofu from scratch, sauerkraut from scratch, pickles from scratch, taco mix from scratch, charcuterie from scratch, ricotta from scratch… why not a simple spice mixture? So I embarked on Garam Masala from scratch
The result was fragrant and delicious. And, if you happen to have all the spices on hand (or something close to it), it’s incredibly inexpensive to make. Might as well grind up those fresh spices you have now rather than wait for a rainy day that may never come… (unless you’re in Hannover and it snows on March 24th…)
I can’t say I’ll never go back to store bought garam masala again — I was very fond of my grocery store back in SF with it’s extensive spice selection — but this recipe is simple and certainly serves a need when one is in a place when “typical” culinary items cannot be purchased.
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Comments
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 at 2:03 pm and is filed under Succulent Spices. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I love the way my house smells after making my own Indian spice mixes. Doing it this way is so much better than the premade mixes.
I love making my own spice blends, garahm masala is one of my faves. Madhur Jaffrey is amazing, her books taught me so much.
Finding the ingredients I was used to was probably one of the hardest things for me about moving to NY. Who knew you can’t get proper sourdough on the east coast or, that you can find ten thousand types of pasta, but nothing remotely Asian or Mexican. I would bring back suitcases full of things I couldn’t get there from WA. Ahh, moving. I don’t think California will be as different.
breadchick - do you have any other suggestions of spice mixtures to make other than garam masala? I am quite curious!
Erin — I am pretty sure one can find everything one wants in CA :), especially in the vicinitz of SF, LA, or Sacramento. At least it makes you be resourceful when you can’t find what you want at the grocery store etc!
I was on 101 and I saw your comment about sage apricot cookies. Do you happen to have a recipe for those? They sound very different and very interesting and I would love to make some!
Freedom — here’s the cookie recipe! I hope you like it!
Apricot, Cornmeal, and Sage Cookies
i will absolutely give your garam masala recipe a go. i adore the scent of toasting spices! i used to make a black bean salad that called for toasting cumin seeds - that’s how i got started. recently i made these fabulous pork chops with a homemade dry rub. i loved the recipe title “Mom’s Perfect Pork Chops & Dad’s Dry Rub”. http://elise.com/recipes/archives/001904moms_perfect_pork_chops.php
i used some beautiful niman ranch chops from the bi-rite market in san francisco’s mission district - heavenly! keep up the creativity!
Jen! Great to see you posting again. This spice recipe looks amazing and I am totally going to try it! I miss you!
denise — oh Bi-Rite! I miss it! that spice rubs looks awesome. I started leaving my spice grinder permanently plugged in, so I end up grinding fresh spices much more often that I used it. Also, the Rainbow Grocery at 13th & Folsom has an amazing selection of whole spices in bulk
amanda — so good to hear from you! any chance you’ll be visiting Europe anytime soon?
I’d be so happy if I had a nearby source for fresh sauerkraut. That’s one thing I definitely wouldn’t want to make at home :)
Jude — making sauerkraut at home is actually really easy! and it’s not stinky or anything like that! I like that I can control the level of sourness — I like it best ‘half-sour’, after it’s been fermenting for about two weeks.
Looks good! Homemade masala is so much nicer than store bought. I have some pictures of me making garam masala on my blog if you want to check it out: http://mangosoup.blogspot.com/2009/08/making-spice-masalas-garam-masala.html